THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 365 



as it flits rather than flies along with head rather high, in little 

 parties just topping the reeds, and each bird half spreading the 

 twelve graduated feathers of its heavy tail, intended to steer by, 

 but surely incommoding rapid progress. 



I have been surprised to find, when walking with an old marsh- 

 man, an experienced " egger," how often he heard their notes when 

 neither of us could see the bird, long experience in listening for 

 the rarer, and to him profitable species, having sharpened his 

 ear. The clear ringing of their call-notes, which one admirer 

 compares to cymbals, and another to the mandoline, can never, 

 says Lord Lilford, be mistaken for any other European bird 

 by a good ear which has once heard it. By one observer 

 the silvery notes are syllabled as " thein, thein," by another 

 as "ping, ping," or, when alarmed, "churr, churr " ; while the 

 provincial name in the south of France is "Trintrin" (Crespon 

 and Jaubert) ; but here its place is to some extent taken by 

 JEgithalus pendulinus. 



It is said that young Bearded Tits, after they have left the 

 nest, sometimes nestle together in a cluster on the reeds of our 

 broads, but this habit does not seem to have been observed on 

 the Continent. Hoy's account of their habits has been quoted 

 already, and need not be repeated (cf. letter, p. 361). 



Their food is not entirely the seeds of the reed, but minute 

 water insects and their larvae, and one sent by me to the late 

 Mr. Cordeaux contained a good deal of river sand. The reed- 

 cutters have told me of seeing them searching the floating 

 " muds " of nearly severed reed, which I have no doubt is 

 explained by the following note : — Mr. W. H. Dikes, having 

 examined three specimens, writes that the crops did not contain 

 a single seed, but, on the contrary, were completely filled with the 

 Succinea amphibia in a perfect state, the shell being unbroken. 

 These shells were closely packed together, the crop of one which 

 was not larger than a hazel-nut containing twenty, and four of 

 Pupa muscorum. (Mag. N. H. iii. p. 239.) 



Nidification. 

 The Bearded Tit is a very early breeder. Booth says : " I 

 have on several occasions seen young birds able to leave the 

 nest by the 4th or 5th of May, and so late as the middle of 



